The Aether
The Aether (also known as Subspace, The Immaterial Universe, The Dreamlands The Dreaming or most commonly, The Veil) is a higher dimensional reality which exists beyond the principle nine dimensions we currently comprehend, existing as an interwoven echo of our physical reality. It is the source of all psychic energies and all instances of archaically defined 'magic' or 'sorcery', as well as the origin or home of many 'paranormal' entities which have been encountered throughout history. It is also the region through which many advanced races have found a solution to the problem of superluminal travel, transitioning into the abstract reality and navigating its incomprehensible paths via various methods and techniques in order to arrive at destinations at impossible distances much faster than conventional methods would allow. Subspace Travel A craft enters Subspace through initializing its Subspace drive, a highly advanced device which generates a localized field that quickly collapses into a wormhole, this wormhole is then entered by the craft before collapsing further into itself and dissipating. Upon entry into Subspace, the craft is transported to a corresponding point within the Aether allowing it to then navigate the countless currents and flows of energy until finally arriving at its desired destination at which point it reinitiliazes its Subspace drive in order to form a breach and transition back into the material unvierse. Because the energies of the Aether do not directly correspond to any specific physical point in the material universe, but rather exist as a kaleidoscope of times, positions and possibilities, the craft is able to appear sever light years from its original position. This process is called Jump while the process of entering and exiting the Subspace is called a Transition. Journeys through Subspace are usually undertaken as short distance jumps, usually spanning only a few light years in distance as longer jumps can be unpredictable and dangerous without the appropriate measures in place. This is because the energies of the Aether are at best, enigmatic and maleable, coalescing and shifting seemingly at will, while at worst deadly and overtly hostile causing some to become invariable lost or disappearing all together. These dangers are often mitigated through the use of stable routes which allow for relatively stable point specific jumps, or through the use of rare jump gates which form a singular point to point subspace tunnel, even rarer still however is the use of psionic gifted individuals whose talents lay in the interpretation and manipulation of the raw energies of the Aether. While uncommon, some individuals also maintain a latent ability to sense forces and Subspace Tunneling and the Aether Subspace Tunnelling is the noted effect which occurs when a specific route is continually used, causing a stabilizing effect within the Aether itself, this is caused by constant Subspace drive stabilization fields moving through the same Time Displacement Aether Navigation Subspace Channels Aether Gates Aether Portals The Maelstrom The Spheres Psionics The Tortured Lands of Asylum The Wild Isles of Oasis The Silver Capital of Verum The Twilight City of Doors The Burning Great Machine The Tranquil The Formless Wastes of the Hollow Deep The Well of Souls The Primordial Aetheric Entities Daemons Aether Rifts Aether Storms Controlling the Aether Notes Scientists believe that the fourth dimension is time, which governs the properties of all known matter at any given point. Along with the three other dimensions, knowing an objects position in time is essential to plotting its position in the universe. The other dimensions are where the deeper possibilities come into play, and explaining their interaction with the others is where things get particularly tricky for physicists. According to Superstring Theory, the fifth and sixth dimensions are where the notion of possible worlds arises. If we could see on through to the fifth dimension, we would see a world slightly different from our own that would give us a means of measuring the similarity and differences between our world and other possible ones. In the sixth, we would see a plane of possible worlds, where we could compare and position all the possible universes that start with the same initial conditions as this one (i.e. the Big Bang). In theory, if you could master the fifth and sixth dimension, you could travel back in time or go to different futures. In the seventh dimension, you have access to the possible worlds that start with different initial conditions. Whereas in the fifth and sixth, the initial conditions were the same and subsequent actions were different, here, everything is different from the very beginning of time. The eighth dimension again gives us a plane of such possible universe histories, each of which begins with different initial conditions and branches out infinitely (hence why they are called infinities). In the ninth dimension, we can compare all the possible universe histories, starting with all the different possible laws of physics and initial conditions. In the tenth and final dimension, we arrive at the point in which everything possible and imaginable is covered. Beyond this, nothing can be imagined by us lowly mortals, which makes it the natural limitation of what we can conceive in terms of dimensions.